Earthquakes 2005

"The United Nations will today announce a flash appeal for aid for north Pakistan, where survivors of the area's biggest earthquake in a century spent a third night outside without food and blankets." 10-05

"A huge earthquake triggered landslides, toppled an apartment building and flattened villages of mud-brick homes Saturday, killing more than 18,000 people across a mountainous swath touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan." 10-05

"MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - Hurt and hungry, families huddled under makeshift tents while waiting for relief supplies Monday after Pakistanís worst-ever earthquake wiped out entire villages and buried roads in rubble. The death toll stood at 20,000 and was expected to rise."

"The magnitude-7.6 quake collapsed the cityís Islamabad Public School. Soldiers with white cloth tied around their mouths and noses pulled a small girlís dust-covered body from the ruins, while the body of a boy remained pinned between heavy slabs of concrete."

"The United Nations said more than 2.5 million people need shelter after the magnitude-7.6 earthquake along the Pakistan-India border. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Relief said it urgently needed 200,000 winterized tents." 10-05

"The Pakistani government has called for and accepted aid from every corner of the earth, even nuclear rival India, which also was hit by the quake. Some hailed the thaw between the two sides as a historic opportunity to work toward lasting peace in the region."

"But such optimism offered little comfort to those left homeless, widowed and orphaned."

"In Garhi Habibullah, Nawazís fingers blistered from the clawing at the earth that entombed his young niece. His pale yellow shalwar kameez, a traditional loose-fitting outfit, was stained with sweat."

ď 'I donít have any other clothes. Everything else was buried when my home collapsed. I havenít seen any help,' Nawaz said, clinging to a small plastic bag of flour. 'This is to feed a family of 12, my brotherís children, mine and my sisterís.' Ē 10-05

"The massive relief effort coordinated in Pakistan - especially in the private sector - has choked the road network across Kashmir."

"On the road to Bagh from Murree - the main artery linking the Bagh valley in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to the rest of the country - dozens of ambulances carrying critically wounded people were stuck in what seemed to be interminable traffic jams."

"The Pakistan army has set up a medical camp in the town of Bagh - but it is desperately short on orthopaedic implants and related medical supplies which, say local doctors, have now emerged as the most urgent need." 10-05

"The United Nations said on Tuesday that it had received less than a quarter of the $550 million sought for quake victims in Pakistan and that the lack of money could soon hamper efforts to save lives in remote areas."

"Agencies are racing to reach 200,000 people in mountainous parts of Kashmir hit by the Oct. 8 quake, which killed an estimated 80,000 people in total and injured 79,000 more."

"Separately, the WFP has received 24 percent of the $56 million sought for food aid under the U.N. appeal, he added."

"The Rome-based agency last week estimated that 2.3 million people are in need of food rations to survive the bitter Himalayan winter, up from 1 million covered in the appeal." 10-05

"We need to examine new ways, possibly an efficient system of standby agreements, to work with responsible armed forces in emergencies like the earthquake in Kashmir. That would give us a far better chance of providing an effective joint response from day one." 11-05